Posten v. Denver Consolidated Tramway Co.
Posten v. Denver Consolidated Tramway Co.
Opinion of the Court
In this action the plaintiff, Manuel Posten, sought to recover damages for injuries sustained by him while attempting to alight from a car owned and operated by the defendant company, on which he was a passenger, through the negligence, as alleged, of a servant and agent of the company. The answer denied negligence on the part of the company,
In the opinion, delivered by Wilson, J., it was held that the evidence was not such as to warrant the trial court in concluding, as a matter of law, either that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence which directly contributed to his injury, or that the accident was not due to negligence of the company’s servant in charge of the ear.
At the ensuing trial, the evidence for the plaintiff was substantially the same as before; and the defendant answered the case which he made by the testimony of its own witnesses. At the conclusion of the evidence, the court directed a verdict for the defendant, and, as a result, the case is again here.
The testimony for the plaintiff was that between 11 and 12 o ’clock at night on September 22,1893, he boarded a car on Broadway, going north, with the intention of alighting at Curtis street, and paid his fare; that he told the conductor he wanted .to leave the car at Curtis street; that two cars were coupled together, the first being the motor car; that he sat in the motor car near its forward end; that when near the point where he desired to leave the car, the conductor called out “Curtis street”; that the car then slackened its speed, and he rose and walked to the rear of the ear, passing the conductor who was standing on the rear platform, and took his position on the lower step of the exit, where, after waiting a few seconds, he undertook to step off, when the conductor cried out “Stop,” and seized him by the right arm. causing him to fall to the ground, where he was
The conductor was a witness for the defendant. He said the plaintiff undertook to jump off backwards ; that such a movement would have thrown him under the rear car; that he (witness) took hold of his arm or collar, and held on to him as long as he could, dragging him until he was pretty nearly across the street; and that at the time of the occurrence the car was going at the rate of about -two miles an hour. The only noticeable difference between the testimony of the conductor and that of the plaintiff related to the plaintiff’s position on the step; the conductor saying that he was fácing backwards, and the plaintiff saying that he was facing at right angles with the line of motion of the car.
When the cause was here before, we held that the evidence for the plaintiff, as then laid before us, made a sufficient case for submission to the jury; and that it was error to order the nonsuit. The evidence for the plaintiff, taken at the last trial and preserved in the present record, varies in no material particular from the other; so that it also made a sufficient case for submission to the jury. We are not advised of the reasons which moved the court, after listening to the testimony7 of the defendant’s witnesses, to
The judgment must be reversed.
Reversed.
070rehearing
On Petition for Rehearing.
A rehearing is asked on the ground that this cause has been tried three different times before three different judges, and that each judge, after hearing the witnesses and seeing their manner and demeanor on the stand, directed a verdict for the defendant. It is argued that the concurrence of these several judges, upon the question of the credibility of the witnesses, should conclude us. A number of cases are cited to the effect that the jury, or the court, where the trial is had before it without a jury, is the exclusive judge of the credit to which the witnesses are entitled. Those cases are not in point. This was not a trial before the judge alone. We do not know the grounds on which the court took the case from the jury. The opinion of the judge upon the truthfulness of the testimony
Petition for rehearing denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.